It's not Spanish, it's not Castellano, it's Chilean.

Good news: I'm adjusting and have found a smaller group of friends than the huge group of 19 gringos (north americans) that walked around speaking English together at first, which was sooo not okay with me. We've also become friends with a few Chilean guys that go to our University. :) They are there every day because they are working as welcomers, i guess, for students coming to apply for classes, so we get to see them often. As well as we hang out with them outside of the university as well. I'm glad because it makes us speak Spanish a lot more!

Bad news: At first, while making my way around the city, I could not understand a WORD of what people were saying to me! Seriously. When at a restaurant or something, the waiter would talk to me and I would be left with my mouth hanging open in confusion. I am not exaggerating. I wouldn't even know how to respond because I was too surprised that I literally understood NOTHING. My family speaks a lot more clearly because they have had a lot of foreigners in their house and know that it is necessary, so I never had any problem understanding them. It was just when I would go out in public that my confidence would take some serious blows.

Chileans speak their own brand of Spanish by cutting off the ends of words completely and putting all of the words together. One really good example that is very Chilean is "sí, po." This means "yes, of course," but in normal spanish it is said "sí, pues" or "pues, sí" and it would not be said near as often. I know that I will definitely come back with that little quirk. It's already starting to seep into my speech. They also have lots of sayings and words that are different from that in the rest of Latin America.
For example:
avocado = palta
fiesta = carrete
maiz (corn) = choclo
adios = ciao (i know that's italian. it's just weird to hear it here.)

...well, i know there are more, but for some reason, that's all i can think of right now. There are entire books full of 'Chilenismos' though.

Luckily, this week I have been able to understand a lot more of what the people are saying and my ability to speak is slowly coming back to me as well. Thank goodness.

I've been taking my camera around the city a lot more so that I actually have something interesting to put on here. There is a lot of cool art on random buildings in the city. I saw this, for example, on the way to eat lunch one day.


This was at a beach that we went to called Algarrobo.


Unfortunately, we didn't exactly check the weather before we went so after riding an hour and a half on a bus, we realized that it was freezing there. Of course, it was the only cold day we've had in the two weeks that we've been here.

Saw this while out one night with some friends.


That same night we ran into a 'native' Bolivian band. So cool! We danced along with them for awhile.


But before you get too excited about the great cultural experiences i'm having, take a look at where we were.


Not really that different from the US. We didn't stay there, though. Definitely too high class for me. We went to a place that was more flaite (sketchy) which is more my style. Haha

That's about it. Keep reading and commenting so that I actually know that people care. Ciao!